Grandma drops from size 24 to 10 after 39lb tumour is taken out

Grandmother who was too scared to go to hospital drops from size 24 to 10 after 39lb tumour is finally taken out

A grandmother dropped seven dress sizes after surgeons removed a 39lb tumour from her stomach.

The benign lump, weighing the equivalent of 17 bags of sugar, caused Jayne Grainger to swell to a dress size 24, giving her the appearance of a heavily pregnant woman.

Medical staff said was one of the biggest tumours they had ever seen.

After surgery at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, Mrs Grainger, who is in her 60s, shrank to a svelte size 10 and now has a new lust for life. She had ignored her condition for so long through fear and a phobia of doctors and hospitals.

Before and after: Jayne Grainger's swollen stomach with the tumour still inside and, right, after the operation where she has dropped to a size 10

Widow Mrs Grainger first realised something was wrong when her stomach started to swell for apparently no reason. But she said: 'I was in complete denial. At that point I had no pain and no symptoms, just a tummy that was getting bigger.'

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It continued to grow until a few months later her son Tim, 45, and daughter Jorgie, 37, noticed and tried to convince her to seek medical help.

'It was one of the largest we've ever had in Oxford. It was a very peculiar case'

But Mrs Grainger said a phobia of doctors and hospitals meant she could not face it. She said: 'I couldn't bear to look at myself in the mirror.

'Although I had this enormous stomach and swollen legs, there was no flesh on my arms or the torso.

'I used to put the rubbish out after dark and kept my car parked really close to my front door, so I could get in without anyone seeing me properly.

'My legs started to swell up too, so it looked as though I had elephantitis.

'The weight of the bump meant the pressure on my legs was unbearable.

'By the end, I could barely walk and couldn't get down the stairs in my house.'

After finally working up the courage to see her doctor, Mrs Grainger, whose husband Alan died from pancreatic cancer seven years ago, was referred from the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, near to where she lives, to the Oxford Cancer Centre at the Churchill Hospital.

She was operated on within days and the cyst, which turned out not to be cancerous, was removed.

Now Mrs Grainger is preparing to take part in Sunday's It's Not Just A Walk In the Park to raise cash for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust to help those who treated her.

She said: 'I have never felt so good - I am on a natural high because I have faced my greatest fear. The other day, I was up a ladder cutting branches off a tree and a neighbour said they wished they had my energy and looked as slim.'

Mr Roberto Tozzi was the surgeon who operated on Mrs Grainger.

He said: 'We managed to get the whole thing out without rupturing it, which was good.

'It had grown very slowly over time but she had just become accustomed to it. 'From the size of it, it was actually a relatively easy operation.

'It was one of the largest we've ever had in Oxford. It was a very peculiar case.'